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New State Retirees Waiting for Checks Want Answers

Posted
by Desare Frazier on

Brenda Scott with the Mississippi Alliance of State Employees says they are getting a lot of calls from new retirees who haven't received their checks.

"They're concerned that they're running the possibility of losing their homes, their cars, paying their monthly expenses. They have kids about to go back to college and they're just in limbo," said Scott.

The Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi said in a letter that the backlog is the result of replacing a slow 16-year old software program, with a new one launched July 6. It stated working out glitches and training staff caused the delay. Also, the letter said 11 out of 13 senior employees have left the agency over the past three years, exacerbating the problem. PERS Board Chairman Bill Benson.

"People are working overtime. They're working Saturdays. They are bringing in people from other divisions to help with the processing, to try to work through the current applications that are out there," said Benson.

Benson says PERS has about 1,000 applications waiting to be processed that were submitted between April 1, and June 30. The staff is working on April submissions. He explains it usually takes 90 days to process an application, but the backlog will extend the timeframe an additional 30 days. Benson says once the paperwork is done, the checks will be mailed immediately.

"They will get all the money they're entitled to. If it's two months, they're getting two months. If they're due a July 1 and August 1, they're getting both of those," said Benson.

The Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi processes about 5,300 applications per year.